Are You Easily Offended?
You shouldn’t be
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No matter who you are…
No matter your race, color, religion, age, sex, identity, background, or any other such consideration…
You should strive to be emotionally resilient and not easily offended.
You’ll be better off — and so will all the people in your life.
And the more people who achieve this level of emotional strength and resilience, the better off our society will be.
On what basis do I make this claim?
On the grounds of ancient, proven wisdom!
King Solomon once declared:
The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. (Proverbs 19:11, KJV)
The word translated as “transgression” in the classic King James Version is rendered as “offense” in the New International Version. The Hebrew word is פֶּשַׁע (pesha’), which can mean transgression, rebellion, or sin.
The Hebrew word behind “glory” is תְּאָרָה (tə’ārāh). The root of the word, אור (‘or), carries a connotation of light or shining. In various contexts, it can mean beauty, glory, honor, or adornment.
Solomon is saying that it is to a person’s beauty or honor — to their credit — to overlook words or actions that he or she perceives as a transgression or offense.
Is that how you see things? Is that how you approach conversations or interactions with others?
Just over a thousand years later, one of the leaders of the first-century-Christian community wrote an epistle that included something similar:
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. (James 1:19–20, KJV)
Note the formula:
- Swift to hear
- Slow to speak
- Slow to wrath
